With the advent of COVID-19, the move to virtual instruction has been accelerated. As was noted in "The State of Simulation Education," virtual reality (VR) is revolutionizing the world of simulation, from stand-alone VR systems to manikins that incorporate VR and augmented reality (AR) into the simulators.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a sudden shift from in-class, hands-on learning and simulation lab hours to virtual education and e-schooling. In an effort to help educators, here are some resources Pocket Nurse® vendors and industry partners are putting forward.

KbPort

KbPort is a technology solutions provider serving the healthcare education and medical simulation markets. As part of their response to COVID-19, KbPort is offering information on free access to two cloud-based clinical educational tools: SimEMR® and Virtual MedsManager™. These tools can enable institutions to continue to educate learners on patient charting, general clinical care and assessment, and medication administration without requiring anyone’s physical presence or access to specialized hardware.

VR Patients

VR Patients asks, “What if you had the ability to build online medical cases of formative and summative assessment, and quickly deliver content to your staff virtually?” This is the challenge and promise of VR Patients 2.0, available now. Students can interview, assess, diagnose, and treat patients, all in a virtual environment. Educators can author scenarios, and develop and deploy immersive training.

XRconnectED

XRconnectED exists to introduce educational institutions to XR technologies and to build community around XR in the Pittsburgh region. XR is a term that encompasses VR, AR, mixed reality, and 360 video, all of which are becoming productivity tools in every industry.

According to Karen Alexander, PhD., Director of XRconnectED and Pittsburgh Chapter Co-President of VR/AR Association, XRconnectED is working on a pilot project in which first responders can contact doctors using an Augmented Reality headset. The doctor can see what the responder sees and can assess the patient remotely and provide treatment guidance. Her organization is working with a community college to develop this technology for their paramedic education program.

Alexander says, “For educational purposes, using the headset would allow a teacher to assess how well the student performs a task or procedure by seeing what they see.” She can conduct a demonstration and provide onboarding for how to use the system. Contact XRconnectED.com for more information.

The Pocket Nurse resource page has links to simulation scenarios for and information about COVID-19, free webinars, and other relevant tools.